


Sucks to Be the Hero

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 20:55:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12872829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: This is a meeting between Rize and Kaneki from Rize’s perspective when she’s imprisoned and starving.





	Sucks to Be the Hero

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title is an English expression. It felt appropriate somehow. :)
> 
> I haven’t seen this scene in the canon yet, although I’ve read about it at Tokyo Ghoul fansites and guides. I’m quite impatient to do so (I’m getting Tokyo Ghoul, Second Season for Christmas, plus I plan on hitting the manga shop for every volume I can find once the holidays are over. :)) Anticipation and eagerness made me write a fanfic about their meeting. I’m fascinated by the Rize/Kaneki relationship in the first anime, the way she’s almost the voice of his hunger, his darker side. As a result, I found myself driven to write this scene when I should have been working on my NaNoWriMo project. :)
> 
> I don’t own the characters of Tokyo Ghoul or anything in this universe. They simply invade my mind, kidnapping me from my own original characters, who howl in protest. Particularly Quartz. :)

“To live is to devour others.”

I raised my head, sniffed at the air. 

I recognized that scent. It was different than I remembered, yet somehow even more familar. 

Almost too familar. 

There he stood, my last victim, looking almost like a biblical angel. 

How ridiculous. 

“Kaneki-san.” I tried to smile. Moving my lips was a bit painful. “The white hair and the red eye suit you. How does it feel to be a mad scientist’s carefully constructed freak?”

“How do you feel, Rize-san?” He took a step closer to me. “After devouring so many people, delighting in their screams, only to become the victim yourself?” He smiled, a humorless mockery of my own expression. “While one of your own victims stands before you, a freakish reflection of yourself?”

“Are you truly my reflection now, Kaneki-san?” I attempted to lick my lips. My tongue ended up lolling outside my mouth instead. “Are you enjoying the taste of flesh as I once did?” I gave my restraints as vicious a yank as I could manage. “Do you like seeing your killer brought so low?”

His smile faltered. 

He stared at me. His human eye still had a hint of some of the guileless purity he’d once possessed. 

Even more ridiculous. 

“No.” He uttered the word with a soft, flat despair I’ve never felt, nor cared to. 

“Then what’s the point?” I demanded. “What use is there in power or devouring others if you can’t enjoy it?”

He gazed at me, heartbreak shining in his amber eye, spreading across his entire face. 

Ah, Kaneki-san, how human you still are. 

“I may be starving, but while I binged, I savoured every bite. I adored the taste of you I managed to snatch before I was reduced to this.” I leered at him. “While you stand here, beautiful, engorged with my power, and wasting the experience on what? Guilt? Regret?”

Kaneki backed away. He tilted his head to regard me. Disgust and wonder played across his face, twisting it into new forms. 

Ridiculous he might be, he was still amusing. 

“Yes, I may be the villain, but at least I found delight in what I was.” I tilted my own head as best I could, in mockery of his own movement. “When has your moral high ground ever delighted you? Or did it sour every moment of happiness you might have possessed?”

Kaneki turned his back on me with a violence I could understand. Perhaps. 

Or at least pretend to. 

“My poor Kaneki-san,” I cooed. “It sucks to be the hero.”

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies if I got the form of address wrong. I haven't seen the actual second season moment of this. I was going to use 'Kaneki-kun' for Rize's form of address. I checked the first episode and realized she actually called him 'Kaneki-san', so I went with that instead.


End file.
